


Shopping Channel

by cecilantro



Series: 100 Days Of Ficlets [35]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Background Beauregard/Jester, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 13:12:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14189688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilantro/pseuds/cecilantro
Summary: Between ink and bookstores, there's very few places that Caleb is happy.





	Shopping Channel

**Author's Note:**

> WHY NOT HAPPY CALEB

“Are you ready to go, Nott?” Caleb asks as he arrives at the table, shaking at his lapels to straighten his newly filled inside pockets out. He has a list of places he wants and needs to check out today, it’s the first free time they’ve  _ really _ had in Zadash, everything else seems to have been chained up by deadlines and dusk arriving, but it’s barely grazing ten in the morning the whole day is his.   
Nott looks to him with a mixture of alarm and guilt,   
“Caleb! Sorry, I, I said I wanted to go with Jester today. She said she’s going to the  _ candy store _ , and she owes me a lollipop.”   
There’s a smirk, Nott side-eyes Jester, who sits back in her chair in overdramatic huffiness.   
“You lose  _ one game _ of Parker to a trickster and  _ suddenly  _ you’re indebted.” she grumbles, Caleb chuckles,   
“I cannot count the amount of times you have done that to Nott.”   
“Yeah!” Nott jumps on enthusiastically, “It’s only one lollipop!”   
“Jester, play nice.” Beau smacks the back of her head, lightly, as she leans over the back of her own chair, “You were gonna buy her it anyway.”   
“That’s true, but I still don’t like it.” She grumbles, and Beau gives the huff of air that is, for her, a laugh, as she drops an arm around Jester’s shoulders and squeezes until her horn knocks against human skull.   
“Ah, alright, then.” Caleb sits down and takes the offered glass of orange juice from Mollymauk as he, too, joins them at the table, “Zadash is surely not too dangerous to traverse by myself.”   
“By yourself? Oh, Caleb, dear.” Molly chuckles beside him, his tail slips up to pat Caleb’s shoulder, “No.”   
“I- I thought that you and Fjord were going to the armory? And to see Pumat Sol.”   
“Fjord is, I did the majority of my business with him yesterday. Though he is a  _ very _ interesting character, I plan on dropping in again, but not so soon.” Molly gives him a brilliant smile, “Fjord is more of a tank than he seems, but I can’t, in good conscience, let my squishiest wizard walk around a city by himself.” and he stands, offers Caleb his arm. Caleb stares at him levelly for a moment,   
“I am a grown man, Mollymauk, I can go shopping on my own.” he snips, but stands, anyway, and lets Molly loop through his arm.   
“See you good folks later.” Molly doesn’t bother replying to Caleb, turns his sun-bright expression on his face to Beau and Jester, trying and failing to cuddle inconspicuously.    
“See you, Molly.” Jester’s attention is nowhere near on him, it’s on Beau, words mumbled into her cheek instead.   
Molly pulls Caleb out into the street.

 

“Ah, that tavern is  _ stifling _ !” Molly damn near crows in the mid-morning sunlight, arm still linked against Caleb, they wander through the outer streets of the Pentamarket in search of a  _ very _ specific store for Caleb, something about charcoal and coloured inks. It’s odd, to Molly, he’s never seen anything of Caleb’s in ink colours other than black, and occasionally blue or brown, but he knows that Caleb has two little bottles of those still tucked away.    
They find the store, eventually, and it’s Caleb that drags Molly into the doorway.   
The store is tiny, barely six feet square, filled on three of four sides with tall shelves that reach the ceiling, and a square plinth in the middle with books, leather for repairing, gold leaf and tools for imprinting. Caleb finally pulls his arm free of Mollymauk, who leans against the front desk to watch as Caleb scours each of the shelves in turn. He runs his fingertips over particularly fine parchment, leather, inks.   
Molly doesn’t think he’s ever seen Caleb so happy. His shoulders are dropped, there’s none of the anxious tension he seems to hold when he’s anywhere else. He picks up a little bottle, tilts it a little, his eyebrows raise and he makes a pleasantly surprised humming noise.   
“Hold.” he demands, turning to hand the bottle to Molly. He does as he’s told, inspects the bottle when Caleb turns away again- it’s a bright, vivid red ink labelled  _ Poppy _ , in fine gold lettering. Caleb is back to the inks again, ends up adding a little bottle of  _ Bluebell _ , and one of  _ Daffodil _ , bright blue and yellow respectively. He tops it off with an even smaller bottle of _ Fuchsia _ , takes all four from Molly’s hands and moves to purchase them. He chatters with the shopkeep more naturally than Molly has ever heard him talk, easy conversation about the writing quality and bleed of various inks, the purchase sets Caleb back by a whole gold, he doesn’t even flinch when he hands it over. Molly watches him settle the bottles in his pocket, careful, and then he turns to face him again, the first time since arriving in the shop, the tension creeps back into his shoulders and Molly is heartbroken.   
When they step back outside, though, Caleb threads an arm through one of Molly’s and hums contentedly, they stroll on.   
They’re in search of a decorative weaponry store when Molly spots the tea shop. He tugs, excitedly, at Caleb’s arm,   
“Time for a detour?” he’s breathless and flushed with his own anticipation, and who is Caleb to deny him the joy of a tea store?   
They head in, the store is far longer than the ink shop, more like the Chastity’s Nook, only with boxes and crates as opposed to books. When Caleb looks up, there’s a bunch of various plants, leaves, tea-making supplies suspended from the roof on draped string. He assumes they’re drying, preservation of the leaves and flowers for the sake of longevity, Molly has pulled away and is making enquiries at the other end of the store.   
Caleb makes his own round, browsing, there are some little wooden boxes with intricate engravings, some have labels.    
Labelled as apple and cinnamon, a reddish wood box with blue inlay, Caleb wants so badly to touch it- he checks the price, it would set him back two silver for the loose tea inside, and he knows from experience that Mollymauk enjoys cinnamon. The only other part would be,   
“Mollymauk?” he asks across the store, and he pauses, grey-blue wood box stilled in his hands,   
“Yes?”   
“What is your stance on apple?”   
“Juicy.” Molly replies, without thinking, and snorts with laughter at himself, “Makes for a good tea, if that’s the opinion you’re asking of me?”   
“Yes, thank you.” and Molly turns back to the shop owner, leaning over the counter to point at various teas. The end of the store that Molly is in appears to be the more expensive end, Caleb shudders to think of the cost, if the box he holds is already two silver.   
He tucks it into his left hand, careful, doesn’t think too hard about the price, he plans on spending more on Mollymauk today anyways.    
He waits for Molly to stray a little further down the store before heading to the desk, sets the little box down and presses a finger to his lips, the storekeeper’s eyes widen, but they remain quiet, hold up two fingers, Caleb slips the two coins over to them.   
He slips the box into his inside pocket as Molly comes back, just manages to slip it out of sight before Molly’s eyes reach it.   
Molly’s total reaches three gold, but he buys a large amount of sachet tea, a lavender-and-vanilla blend that he seems very relieved to have found, he chats amicably with the storeowner as he digs the gold out and hands it over, they leave with a cheery farewell.   
“Thanks for that, Caleb.” Molly jerks his head back at the store as they move on, “Though there is one other place I’d like to visit, after that, it’s all yours.”   
“ _ Ja _ , that should be fine. Where would you like to go?”

 

Where Molly wants to go, it turns out, is the house of the Platinum Dragon. Caleb sits on the wall of the flowerbeds opposite, he’s not one for religion, or imposing on other’s spaces, and Molly’s devotion is something personal, Caleb doesn’t wish to encroach.   
He scribbles notes in a scruffy notebook as he waits, more things to remember.   
Like the way that Fjord had looked at Molly, calculating, as though he was a puzzle when he’d told Caleb they’d be journeying together. That goes down, a star, a line,  _ feelings? _ In shorthand at the bottom of the page.   
Or the way that Jester shows her genuine affection, separated in a table from the stage show affections. From exaggerated tone to gentle touch, he marks down the way that she’s pulled to the shoulder of people she cares for, an added footnote of the time she’d fallen asleep on his. He’d found it awkward, at the time, but as he learns more about her, it touches him in new ways.   
He adds  _ apple _ and  _ vanilla _ under the list of things that Molly enjoys.   
When Molly is finished, Caleb is so wrapped up in his note-taking that he gets the jump on him, flumps to sit beside the wizard and drape an arm around his shoulders,   
“Thank you.”    
There’s no bravado to his words, Caleb snaps his book shut before Molly can read any of the notes Caleb has on him, tucks it and the pencil away with one arm and snakes the other around Molly’s waist, squeezes,   
“You have been, very patient with me, too. I enjoy spending time in your company and learning more about how you work.”   
Molly’s head drops to his shoulder, he yawns, it’s coming up to four in the afternoon.   
“Was there anywhere else you wanted?”   
“Not really.” Caleb shrugs the shoulder not currently full of Mollymauk, “I, I simply, I enjoy the  _ feeling  _ of the city.” and thinks, for a moment, “I could go for a pastry.”   
Molly laughs,   
“It’s like Jester is right here with me. Come on, then, the store that Beau and I went for her tarts should be open.”   
“Lead the way.”   
Caleb lets Molly stand, expects him to link arms with him again, instead, Molly laces his fingers with Caleb’s and pulls him back toward the Pentamarket.

 

Molly insists on paying for their sweets, they each eat one-handed as they wander through the streets of Zadash. The sun is beginning to set before they decide to make their way back to the tavern, bumping into Jester, Beau, and Nott on the way. Nott waves her lollipop at Caleb when she sees him,   
“Look how big this is!”   
“Biggest in the store.” Beau has an arm slung around Jester’s shoulders, something of an affectionate smirk on her face, “Someone can’t help showin’ off, eh?” a squeeze, Jester sighs dramatically,   
“I  _ thought _ , since Nott beat me  _ fairly _ , I PROBABLY owed her a big lollipop rather than a tiny useless one.” she fake-moans, Caleb sees the glimmer of jest in her eyes, and rolls his,   
“Of course. Oh!” he startles himself as he remembers, “I, have something for you, when we get back to the inn. I think you will appreciate it.”   
“ _ Caleb, _ ” Jester drawls, almost a whine, “You don’t need to buy me things!”   
“I, I, I thought I should make my mood the other day up to you, somehow.”   
“You already did!” Jester’s voice is a fake grumble, but she leaves the topic there and lets Molly banter with her about the day’s activities. Molly keeps hold of Caleb’s hand.

 

Fjord is already there when they arrive, thumbing through a little book that he tucks away when they sit down. Molly and Jester are collecting drinks for the table, Fjord eyes Caleb.   
“So how’s y’ day?”   
“It has been… pleasant.” he considers before he speaks, and Fjord’s expression changes indescribably, a little darker, perhaps?   
“Pleasant? What way?”   
“Mollymauk and I visited an ink store and he was very patient with me.” Caleb shrugs, “I know I can be insufferable in places such as that, they make me feel so at home, I forget myself often.”   
“Nonsense.” Molly materialises between Caleb and Fjord, sets Caleb’s drink down with his tail, hands Fjord’s off to him, “I enjoyed it immensely, you relax so much, it’s quite cute.”   
Caleb turns his eyes to his drink, flushing, Fjord chuckles,   
“So…?”   
“No.” Molly’s eyes meet Fjord’s with a hard jolt, “Nothing of that nature.”   
Molly is saved from Caleb’s bubbling well of questions by Jester sitting down, opposite him, he sits up a little straighter.   
“Jester,” he grasps for her attention, she looks over, “I have, a couple of things for you, just a moment.”   
He roots around in his pocket, withdraws the four ink bottles, his fingers brush the tea box and he gives a startled  _ oh _ as he remembers that, too. And pulls it out, sets it on his knee for later.   
He leans over the table to tip the bottles into Jester’s hand,   
“I thought you may want to colour some of your drawings to the traveller, if, if, if, you know-”   
“Oh,  _ Caleb _ ! That’s so thoughtful!”   
She sets the bottles down, near vibrating with excitement, stands to rush around the table and throw her arms around his shoulders. He stays perfectly still until she releases, and then chuckles, awkwardly,   
“I am glad I made a good decision.”   
He lets the conversation of the table fall back to busy, again, before he tugs at Molly’s sleeve under the table. Molly turns to him, halfway through a gulp of whatever he’s drinking, swallows,   
“Are you alright?” are the first words that come out of his mouth, Caleb feels a strange ache in his chest at his concern.   
“ _ Ja _ , I am good, I, I have,” he pulls the box from his lap and sets it on the desk, “I know you purchased enough of your own, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t think of anything else to  _ buy _ for you.”   
“Caleb.” There seems to be more, but Molly can’t quite find the phrasing for it, he takes Caleb’s face in his hands and kisses his forehead.   
Caleb chuckles, shifts to rest his hands on Molly’s knee, when the tiefling is finished smooching his head he pulls him into a tight hug, instead.   
“Didn’t need to.” Caleb makes out the gruff words, said against his neck, he pats Molly’s side.   
“I, I know I didn’t  _ need _ to, but I have, a good amount of things that I wish to pay you back for in kind, and…”   
Molly huffs and draws back to kiss him. It’s the only way he can think to shut him up, the thought of a hand over the mouth occurs too late, he’s already got his lips pressed to Caleb’s.    
Fjord throws his hands up, exasperated,   
“It’s about  _ fuckin’  _ time!”


End file.
